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2017 Mercedes-Benz C300 Coupe Quick Spin

Now that Mercedes has completed its rollout of four-door C-Class variants, it's time to subtract two doors and get down to the business of sport. The sedan smashed the entry-level luxury paradigm by being good enough to (maybe) keep you from aspiring to an S-Class. The C Coupe, on the other hand, wants to keep you from looking sideways, to certain BMW and Audi competitors. Driving Notes An obvious feature it shares with the sedan is its sense of maturity. The sheetmetal and proportions convey gravitas. The long-hood-into-short-tail that is The Mercedes Way gets another handsome showing here. There's an additional 2.4 inches between the bulkhead and the front axle – although to our eye that trim, curt rear end is overwhelmed by the visual weight of the rest of the car. It looks better on the AMG C63, where flared wheel arches put more emphasis in back. The front and rear of the coupe are altered from the sedan design. The crease under the headlights curves down into the lower intakes forming a continuous design element to the bottom of the curved lower lip. In back, the minimal taillights of the sedan get stretched across the fenders and the wider, straighter trunk of the coupe. The two-door is 1.5 inches lower than the sedan. Although the they share the same width, the coupe looks wider from the rear. Other markets will get a choice of four gasoline and two diesel engines. In the United States, we'll get the rear-wheel-drive C300 next spring with its 241 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque, same as in the sedan, with a seven-speed automatic transmission. After that will come a 4Matic version, and in summer comes the AMG C63. Mercedes hasn't broached the subject yet but our market should follow the sedan route, skipping the standard C400 to get the C450 AMG 4Matic with 362 hp and 384 lb-ft. At some point in the undisclosed future, the coupe will be upgraded to the nine-speed automatic. The interior is a delight, but that's what we're used to here – the materials look and feel excellent. The COMAND screen placement is still a hot-button issue, and we think the bezel-to-screen ratio is out of whack. Buyers don't seem to care. This year, the C-Class is just a couple thousand units behind the barn-busting 2013 numbers. In spite of the additional swoopiness versus the previous coupe, the larger size means larger interior dimensions everywhere – trunk space grows by 20 percent.

Mercedes-AMG GT pressed into service as DTM safety car

DTM is one of the most competitive, fast-paced touring car series in the world. So to set the pace, the marshals need a pretty fast car as well. And that's just what they got with the new Mercedes-AMG GT pictured here. Marking its debut at the Lausitzring speedway this weekend, the AMG GT S safety car is based closely on the road-going model, but like the version that's already in use in Formula One, it's been modified for safety-car duty. That means a low-profile light bar mounted to a carbon-fiber air scoop on the roof – both tested in a wind tunnel – as well as the front splitter and rear wing from the optional Aerodynamics package, and the optional upgraded rolling stock. Inside it's got racing buckets, six-point harnesses, a flat-bottom steering wheel, and special radio equipment. Otherwise it's essentially the same as the road-going model, right down to the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 and seven-speed dual clutch transmission. After all, with 510 horsepower on tap, it ought to be able to stay out ahead of the 490-hp touring cars currently competing in DTM. The new safety car replaces the C63 AMG Black Series coupe that Mercedes previously contributed to the effort, and will alternate with the vehicles furnished by rivals Audi and BMW from race to race. Related Video: Mercedes-AMG GT S: new Safety Car for the DTM: From Formula 1® to the DTM Affalterbach. A new Safety Car celebrates its DTM premiere: at the second DTM race at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz (29 to 31 May 2015), the Mercedes-AMG GT S is set to be deployed for the very first time. The new sports car will help to ensure maximum safety on the race track in the world's most popular touring car series. In technical terms, the 375 kW (510 hp) eight-cylinder sports car is for the most part the same as the series production vehicle – just like its counterpart from the FIA Formula 1 World Championship™, the Official Safety Car. In its road-going guise the Mercedes-AMG GT S has turned heads since its market launch in March 2015 and now the sports car is also taking to the DTM stage. The new season of the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) got under way during the first weekend of May in Hockenheim. The second DTM race taking place at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz at the end of May will see the Mercedes-AMG GT S make its first appearance as the official Safety Car.

Mercedes-AMG GT3 opts for big displacement without a turbo

There was a time when there were numerous categories in sports car racing: GT1, GT2 , GT3... but these days they've all been amalgamated into the latter. That's left a GT3 class packed with competitors and possibly more contentious than ever before. What you see here is Mercedes' new challenger, in official form after being leaked earlier today by the French website Le Point. Replacing the SLS AMG GT3 that won its class (among other races) the Nurburgring 24 Hours in 2013 is the new Mercedes-AMG GT3. Set to be revealed at the Geneva Motor Show, it's the racing version of the new Mercedes-AMG GT, and aside from looking the business, it has the makings of a highly competitive entry. As you can see, it sits closer to the track surface than the road-going version, and packs more extreme aero – including a front splitter you could serve dinner off of, little winglets to deflect the air away from the front tires, deep side sills, a massive rear wing and (though we can't see it presently) what promises to be a very large rear diffuser. It's also got more ventilation to feed the engine and cool the brakes, and a stripped-out cabin with full roll cage and a steering device that's long since evolved beyond resembling an actual "wheel." To save weight, Mercedes has redone many of the panels out of carbon fiber, but one of the most intriguing elements is what you'd find under that woven hood: instead of adapting the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 from the road-going GT, AMG has slotted in the larger atmospheric 6.3-liter V8 from the outgoing racer – coupled to a six-speed sequential gearbox. With its new GT3 entry, Mercedes surely hopes to take a slice of the customer racing market that Porsche in particular has developed into a successful and profitable business over the years. Racing fans, however, will be more interested to see how this puppy fares at Le Mans, the Nurburgring, the Blancpain sprint and endurance series, the United SportsCar Championship, the FIA World Endurance Championship and countless national series around the world. It'll have tough competition on its hands, though, from the likes of the Porsche 911 RSR, Audi R8 LMS, Bentley Continental GT3, Ferrari 458 Italia GT3, McLaren 650S GT3, Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and countless others that battle for glory on a racetrack somewhere on any given Sunday. World premiere in Geneva for spectacular AMG racing car All-out attack : the new Mercedes-AMG GT3 Affalterbach.